Another "great" dealer experience...Nissan

[BuickGN]

Originally Posted By: KrisZ
Originally Posted By: bretfraz
With car sales so depressed, the most profitable dept in a car dealership is the service dept. It's been that way for some years now.

The #1 "salesman" in a car dealership now sells service, not cars. $250 for a trans drain & fill? The "adviser" probably gets $50-75 in commission for that sale. Sell enough of those in a week and there is probably a nice cash spiff on Friday, or a spin & win.

Since service sales are such a profit center, I think you should negotiate as aggressively for service as you would new car sales. People think nothing of demanding to buy the car at invoice plus dealer holdback. Why not do the same with trans service and brake jobs? Do some local market research and come back with a counteroffer. Start the negotiation process with the service adviser the same as you would the car salesman.


There is a much simpler solution, find a private shop that will do a good job for a fair price and stick with it, no reason to support Dealerships when you know you are being screwed every time you visit.

You will be doing your community a favor and truly support small business.


I agree with that. Unfortunately it's only possible once the car is out of warranty.

 

[KrisZ]

Originally Posted By: BuickGN
Originally Posted By: KrisZ
Originally Posted By: bretfraz
With car sales so depressed, the most profitable dept in a car dealership is the service dept. It's been that way for some years now.

The #1 "salesman" in a car dealership now sells service, not cars. $250 for a trans drain & fill? The "adviser" probably gets $50-75 in commission for that sale. Sell enough of those in a week and there is probably a nice cash spiff on Friday, or a spin & win.

Since service sales are such a profit center, I think you should negotiate as aggressively for service as you would new car sales. People think nothing of demanding to buy the car at invoice plus dealer holdback. Why not do the same with trans service and brake jobs? Do some local market research and come back with a counteroffer. Start the negotiation process with the service adviser the same as you would the car salesman.


There is a much simpler solution, find a private shop that will do a good job for a fair price and stick with it, no reason to support Dealerships when you know you are being screwed every time you visit.

You will be doing your community a favor and truly support small business.


I agree with that. Unfortunately it's only possible once the car is out of warranty.


Why is that? Last time I checked, regular maintenance can be performed anywhere, as long as it's documented.
In OP's case the dealer DID NOT want to do warranty work, but insted was trying to sell a maintenance item for $250, so why give them business?

 

[SteveSRT8]

"Stealerships" have earned their reputations!

Hope there is a special place for the ones who prey on the elderly. That is despicable. But they will take advantage of anyone they can.

And BTW, doesn't that 3.5 Nissan have knock sensors? WTH is going on with pinging in a modern vehicle? Spent two weeks in a rental Murano, remember it as a pretty cool car what with the CVT and all.

 

[BuickGN]

Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
"Stealerships" have earned their reputations!

Hope there is a special place for the ones who prey on the elderly. That is despicable. But they will take advantage of anyone they can.

And BTW, doesn't that 3.5 Nissan have knock sensors? WTH is going on with pinging in a modern vehicle? Spent two weeks in a rental Murano, remember it as a pretty cool car what with the CVT and all.


I have a pretty light foot, at least in the TL and Murano. It locks the convertor at a very low speed and pulls rpms down into the 1,200rpm range under light acceleration which causes the pinging. The gf doesn't have to worry about this since normal to her is half throttle and above. I've learned to take off a little harder and then back off the throttle as speed comes up but it still bothers me I can't drive it the way I want to.

Even my TL pings at part throttle. I've run unleaded race gas in different mixtures first to make sure it's real knock and second to see how much octane it required to completely go away on the scanner. It stopped around a 96 octane mix.

It's annoying but unfortunately the dealers won't try/ don't have the intelligence to fix the problem.

I have an overly sensitive ear for knock, the first time I drove over the crankshaft and torque convertor in the GN, I became very aware of the sound.

 

[Jim 5]

Often it's worth shopping around for dealers. If you are in a fairly populous area, there should be a handful of Nissan dealers withing 50 miles. Have you tried that?

 

[BuickGN]

Originally Posted By: Jim 5
Often it's worth shopping around for dealers. If you are in a fairly populous area, there should be a handful of Nissan dealers withing 50 miles. Have you tried that?


Definately going to do that next time. We were in a bit of a hurry this time, the work truck was in the shop and with our very different schedules, sharing a car is not easy.

 

[Scdevon]

Some poeple would argue that light pinging is harmless, but heavy pinging is extremely hard on piston rings and piston ring lands. Don't let them jive you. Many engines have been ruined by detonation.

I ALMOST treat my new vehicles as if they don't have warranties because of the idiots working at dealerships. I prefer to fix minor issues myself out of my own pocket rather than dealing with these fools.
I guess I'm lucky, but I've never had a new vehicle with an issue that I couldn't fix myself with a little common sense diagnosis and a few bucks worth of parts.

 

[CivicFan]

Originally Posted By: BuickGN
Originally Posted By: Jim 5
Often it's worth shopping around for dealers. If you are in a fairly populous area, there should be a handful of Nissan dealers withing 50 miles. Have you tried that?


Definately going to do that next time. We were in a bit of a hurry this time, the work truck was in the shop and with our very different schedules, sharing a car is not easy.


I don't know why but I have a feeling that it's not an issue with pinging but you probably have a heightened sensitivity to what the engines do.

 

[saberz]

Originally Posted By: mstrjon32
The dealership replaced the steering rack in my 2006 Monte Carlo two years ago because they thought that was causing a clunking (we all know now full well its the intermediate shaft), and gave it back to me with the alignment all out of whack. I went back not one, not two, not three, but FOUR times, and they never could set the alignment and toe properly.

The service writers and mechanics there are truly idiots.


Don't get me started on the ISS. My Impala would get the ISS lubed and it would be fine for a week and the clunking would come back. Replaced the ISS TWICE and it still kept coming back.

I complained to corporate so many times about it and they said its routine maintenance, uh no its not. After so much fighting I just gave up and dealt with it.

It wasn't the dealer's fault, they were actually doing their job, my buddy did it, and I did it as well and the ISS still did it :|

 

[BuickGN]

Originally Posted By: CivicFan
Originally Posted By: BuickGN
Originally Posted By: Jim 5
Often it's worth shopping around for dealers. If you are in a fairly populous area, there should be a handful of Nissan dealers withing 50 miles. Have you tried that?


Definately going to do that next time. We were in a bit of a hurry this time, the work truck was in the shop and with our very different schedules, sharing a car is not easy.


I don't know why but I have a feeling that it's not an issue with pinging but you probably have a heightened sensitivity to what the engines do.


They know it pings but I had to make them put it on the scanner to show the knock retard as proof. They were content as soon as it showed no codes. Where the problem comes in is I don't want any pinging and they argue that some is acceptable. While much more severe, I've cracked cylinders, broken forged pistons, and spit the crank out of the block due to pinging before I knew how to tune properly. I'm not expecting any hard part breakage but minor pinging is still not good for the rings and rod bearings.

 

[mstrjon32]

Originally Posted By: Anies
Don't get me started on the ISS. My Impala would get the ISS lubed and it would be fine for a week and the clunking would come back. Replaced the ISS TWICE and it still kept coming back.


I brought it in for the clunking and I told them, please just replace the ISS, I KNOW that's the problem and they insisted all they could do was lube it, so they did and it was fine for about a week. Then I went back (this is when I was in Oklahoma) and they lubed it again, fine for another week. Then I moved, and went to another dealership, that insisted it was the steering rack, so I said fine, replace it. They replaced it, it still clunked, AND my alignment was out. Went back, and then FINALLY, they replaced the ISS, like I asked the first dealer to, the first time, and guess what? The [censored] clunking was gone.

All of that could have easily been avoided if the first dealer had just replaced the ISS the first time. This car has had only a few small problems, each of which was made much more aggravating by stubborn or incompetent dealership service departments. You buy a new car so you can have the warranty, but, !@#$, it really is just less of a hassle to fix things yourself!

 

[Cutehumor]

I've posted about my dad's 03 Nissan Sentra headgasket leak fiasco. cooling system pressure tested fine and no check engine lights they said. I had oil analysis proof that it was an internal coolant leak plus all the antifreeze I had to put in the radiator. They wouldn't do anything until the check engine light came on for a misfire and changed the headgasket. In fact, they had to do it twice! I've seen many many stories of Nissan dealerships not repairing nissan vehicles under warranty. If anyone wants a vehicle that a dealerships won't repair under warranty, buy a Nissan!

 

[JTK]

I pretty much go into it with very low expectations. Anything good that comes out is a bonus! I've been lucky with my dealer service visits the last 10yrs or so. Somehow maintained cool, poker face, etc. Found out that you need to bargain for parts and services and you are going to pay something (sometimes). There's too much infrastructure there to expect not to.

Joel

 

[sciphi]

Stories like these make me want to steer clear from dealers as much as possible. It's too bad that dealers are so often crummy since there are several cars I'd gladly buy new if the dealers were halfway competent at fixing the warranty issues.

My fiancee bought a "used" 09 Fit with 300 miles on it. The dealer tried to charge her for the second electronic-headed key the owner's manual says comes with the car after they tried to pass off a door-only key as the second key. Knock on wood we never have to take the car back there for warranty work.

 

[Vikas]

Your first priority in finding a shop is to make sure they are being run by the honest guys; the second priority is to make sure that they are reasonably competent and if they work with you i.e. they believe you know what you are talking about when it comes to car repairs, DO NOT GO anywhere else.

- Vikas

 

[CROWNVIC4LIFE]

Originally Posted By: Vikas
Your first priority in finding a shop is to make sure they are being run by the honest guys; the second priority is to make sure that they are reasonably competent and if they work with you i.e. they believe you know what you are talking about when it comes to car repairs, DO NOT GO anywhere else.

- Vikas


Finding a honest shop in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area is next to impossible...But there are a sprinkling of them.

 

[CROWNVIC4LIFE]

Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
"Stealerships" have earned their reputations!

Hope there is a special place for the ones who prey on the elderly. That is despicable. But they will take advantage of anyone they can.


The elderly get hosed everyday in Broward and Miami-Dade County...A local tire place had my mom in tears a few years ago when they said she had a 800 buck oil leak...Turns out they sprayed oil under the car to convince her it had a leak...She left and found out different...She just went there for a oil change.

When the snowbids come they will have a field day with the elderly.

The average oil change for a elderly person in South Florida is 800 dollars.

As far as dealers go Toyota dealers are the worst to deal with in South Florida.

 

[JohnBrowning]

When my Camry was new it needed a valve cover gasket and the gaskets for the spark plug holes needed to be adjusted. You could see the oil seeping out. The knuckle head made it sound like it was my fault and that I just over poured the oil! Never mind I started out that I was a Mechanic. On top of that due to Toyota's stupid oil baffle design I have to use a tiny funnel so their is no chance of an over pour and on top of that I always put rags around the top so if ever in my life time I do over pour it is not going to run all over the engine! I think I was 9 year old when I mastered the art of pouring oil and that was back when they where oil can's and you had to puncture them with a funel that would stay on the top of the can until you took it off for the next can so plastic bottles are no challenge to me! So I cleaned it myself and took digital photo's and sure enough it came back!

You should not have to work that hard to get them to do what is right! I was working for Toyota they do some out of warranty good faith work for me but I was also working their so I was treated differently then!

All dealership's suck when it comes to Warranty work unless their is a TSB or Recall and even then they drag their feet often! It has always been a matter of US against Them and I doubt it will change any time soon! I never volanteer anything at all in the way of information I only aanswere what is asked! They are always looking for a way to get out of warranty work becasue it does not pay as well as non-waranty work!